Hourcade to take Pumas to 2015?

Former Argentina captain Agustin Pichot is hopeful that new Pumas coach Daniel Hourcade will take the team through to the 2015 World Cup.

Former Argentina captain Agustin Pichot is hopeful that new Pumas coach Daniel Hourcade will take the team through to the 2015 World Cup.

Hourcade stepped up from the Argentina B team to be coach of the senior team on Tuesday, replacing Santiago Phelan who resigned on Monday, the Argentinian Rugby Union (UAR) announced.

Hourcade, nicknamed the 'egg', will begin with the November Test series against England at Twickenham on November 9, Wales at the Millennium Stadium a week later and Italy in Rome the week after that.

However, former Argentinian scrumhalf Pichot, a member of the side that reached the 2007 Rugby World Cup semifinals, and now a director of the UAR said they hoped Hourcade would stay on till the 2015 World Cup.

The resignation of Phelan, who guided the Pumas to the 2011 World Cup quarterfinals after succeeding Marcello Loffreda, came as no surprise after six successive defeats in the recent Rugby Championship, although he had been thought likely to stay until his contract came to an end in December.